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Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings greets students at the launch of the Dallas City of Learning initiative.

The Dallas City of Learning project will kickoff on June 9, allowing students to earn digital badges by taking advantage of learning opportunities around the city.

Mayor Mike Rawlings and the nonprofit group Big Thought announced the launch of the initiative on Wednesday. Big Thought focuses on building partnerships to improve public education through creative learning.

The badges are similar to earning a scouting badge. They show mastery of a skill and allow students to show off their accomplishments. In this summer’s pilot, the Dallas program expects to reach over 10,000 kids. It’s geared towards Dallas students ages 5-18.

The activities for the kids run the gamut. Hands on experiences at Dallas public libraries. Visits to museums. Theater camp sessions. Studying animal behavior at the Dallas Zoo.

More information and a searchable database of activities can be found at dallascityoflearning.org. Events can be filtered by location, age range and cost (free or paid events). The initiative wraps up Aug. 25.

The goal is for students to expand their knowledge and collect digital badges to showcase achievements to family, schools and potential employers. Several cities are using the program, which kicked off last year in Chicago. The hope is that the program will become even more recognizable through expansion and help participants gain college admission, land internships and secure job interviews.

“We know that kids spend 80% of waking hours outside the classroom, yet chances for out-of-school enrichment aren’t typically available to many of the kids in our city,” Gigi Antoni, President and CEO of Big Thought, said in a news release. “By 6th grade, kids from middle income families have benefited from 6,000 more hours of enrichment compared to their lower income peers. Dallas City of Learning provides more kids more ways to explore Dallas and pursue their learning interests while closing this opportunity gap.”

More than 50 organizations have partnered in the initiative in Dallas. Corporate donors are McDermott Foundation, Texas Instruments and Bank of America.

“Powerful learning occurs when kids explore their interests on their own time in hands-on, collaborative ways,” Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said in the news release. “Dallas is ensuring that all our children have the opportunity to pursue their passions outside the classroom, helping them develop essential skills like critical thinking and problem solving. No matter their interests, talents, background or resources, Dallas’ youth will have access to exciting opportunities to discover and develop creative and intellectual skills.”

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings caused quite a stir last week when he said that Toyota decided to move its national headquarters to Plano and not Dallas because of DISD.

Rawlings said in an interview that Toyota considered relocating to Dallas but that officials with the Japanese automaker wanted a better school district. (Rawlings said Monday he shouldn’t have spoken for Toyota executives.) Toyota ultimately decided on a corporate campus in northwest Plano, which is near Plano ISD, Frisco ISD and Lewisville ISD.

For decades, Toyota has had its U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., a suburb that is about 19 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Plano is a suburb of Dallas and is about 17 miles from downtown.

Torrance and Plano — and the school districts there — are also similar in other ways. It suggests that it would have been a change for Toyota to move to an urban setting.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings talks to the media on how the home-rule school proposal.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said Tuesday that Toyota considered moving its national headquarters to the city but decided against it because of Dallas ISD.

In an interview on KERA’s Think, Rawlings said Toyota ultimately decided to relocate to Plano because of the schools in Dallas.

“We don’t get Toyota in Dallas because of the school system. We’ve talked to them. They want to be in Plano,” Rawlings said.

Rawlings said it’s difficult to sell a company on moving to Dallas when it has so many low-performing schools that produce few graduates. He said the schools played a role in 7-Eleven deciding to move its headquarters from Dallas to Irving recently.

“They looked at a lot of things — the location, cost of real estate,” Rawlings said about Toyota. “But they want a school … The 7-Eleven CEO said, ‘I need to be where our families are sending their kids to school,’ and they are not sending them to DISD.”

Toyota declined to comment about what cities the company considered besides Plano. Through a spokesperson, Toyota said it looked at several criteria, including cost of living, access to an airport and educational opportunities. Toyota considered both K-12 schools and higher education, the spokesperson said.

Dallas ISD spokesman Jon Dahlander, however, pointed out that the district has some of the best public high schools in the nation. And DISD is working to improve all of its schools, he said.

“Dallas ISD is proud to have, for the third year in a row, the best high school in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report, along with the 8th best high school. Today, Dallas ISD was named as having seven of the top ten schools in the region, according to Children At Risk,” Dahlander said.

Trustee Bernadette Nutall, who debated home rule with Rawlings on Think on Tuesday, said after the show that Toyota probably didn’t cross Dallas off the list only because of DISD.

“They are looking at tax incentives. They look at economic development, quality of life,” she said. “There are a lot of things people look at. Education is one thing but it’s not the deciding factor.”

In an interview with The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday afternoon, Rawlings elaborated on the city’s talks with Toyota and why he thinks it picked Plano.

“In listening to (Toyota’s) real estate advisors, one of the main criteria is K-12 schools. It was clear that the Plano situation offered a better situation,” he said.

Rawlings said that Dallas has a “strong hand” when it pitches companies to relocate to the city. But it has a “weak card” in Dallas ISD, he said.

“It shouldn’t be a big surprise that one of our barriers to recruiting a large corporation is our neighborhoods and our schools,” he said. “The CEO of 7-Eleven told me this very clearly.”

Despite Toyota’s decision not to move to Dallas, Rawlings said he’s happy the Japanese carmaker picked Plano. Rawlings said he believes Dallas’ offer to Toyota, including the tax incentives, match Plano’s.

“Plano is the first town north of Dallas. I consider that Dallas won in this situation too because we have a great corporate citizen,” he said.

During the past two months, Rawlings has been the most vocal supporter of an effort to convert Dallas ISD into a home-rule charter district. Home-rule districts are free from some state laws and can implement a new system of governing. He believes that a home-rule Dallas ISD could innovate and thrive without burdensome state oversight.

Rawlings, whose mayoral campaign include a pledge to improve Dallas’ schools, has also launched GrowSouth, his plan to improve southern Dallas communities. The effort includes improving schools there.

Dallas ISD school board president Eric Cowan and Superintendent Mike Miles sent a letter to Mayor Mike Rawlings on Friday and outlined the district’s recent success.

In the letter, the two district leaders thanked Rawlings for allowing them to discuss the state of education in Dallas ISD at a City Hall meeting this month. They also said they look forward to DISD schools teaming up with the city through its libraries, recreational centers and clinics.

“The overwhelming response from the Dallas City Council to our plan and the support given to the district was heartening and welcomed,” Cowan and Miles wrote. “As stated, we are committed to the district and city working together advocating for the needs of our students both inside and outside the classroom, developing a legislative agenda for both entities to promote to our state legislators in Austin, collaborating and sharing resources and positively promoting DISD within our community.”

During the home-rule effort during the past two months, Rawlings has been vocal critic of the school district and its trustees. He has often cited the district’s low rate of students graduating prepared for college. Rawlings has, however, backed off some of the harsh rhetoric in recent weeks and touted DISD in a recent opinion-editorial in The Dallas Morning News.

Cowan and Miles attached a two-page summary that lists recent progress in Dallas ISD. Principals operate under a new evaluation system, it says. The graduation rate has jumped from 62 percent in 2007 to 81 percent now. A fiberoptic network has been installed in all DISD buildings and schools. DISD students also closed the minority achievement gaps versus their white peers.

The letter encourages Rawlings and City Council members, who also received it, to cite those numbers when they meet with constituents and community leaders.

Dallas ISD students attending the 3rd annual Urban You Turn event on Saturday can expect a day of entertainment, inspirational speeches and appearances by NFL players.

Over 5,000 students are expected at Envision 2020 at Gerald J. Ford Stadium at Southern Methodist University. The event is free but registration is required at urbanyouturn.org.

SMU Head Football Coach June Jones, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and DISD Superintendent Mike Miles will lead the festivities.

“My goal is to help these students realize their hopes and dreams and in so doing love them all along the way,” Jones said in a news release.

Dallas rapper Moses Uvere and anti-bullying speaker Fabian Ramirez will be among entertainers and speakers at the event. Former NFL players Jerry Levias and Danny Buggs will make an appearance, as will Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown.

The concourse around the stadium will have booths that feature various organizations, colleges and universities. Information on summer camps and after-school programs will also be available.

Urban You Turn is a subsidiary of the June Jones Foundation. The news release states that Envision 2020 was created to be “a catalyst for students, community leaders, not-for-profit mentors and groups to collaborate, support and celebrate our next generation while giving them resources to be successful.”

The event will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Gerald J. Ford Stadium, 5801 Airline Road in Dallas. Register at urbanyouturn.org.

They will also attempt to tamp the emotions and tensions that have sparked during the first month of the home-rule drive. Martinez, Dunning and Norman got together 25 years ago in Dallas Together, a group that helped ease racial, social and economic tension in the late 1980s.

“I knew it would be a difficult process,” Rawlings said at news conference at UNT Dallas College of Law. “Many people have been insulted or upset about it. I apologize if I contributed to any of those hurt feelings.”

He added: “The rollout of this effort was misunderstood and poorly executed. As my wife told me, ‘People don’t get it and when people don’t get it, they fear it.’”

In response to a request for comment from Rawlings about meeting with the three leaders, his spokesman, Sam Merten, wrote in an email: “He has met recently with dozens of local leaders about this issue, and the people you mentioned are just three of them. He also strongly believes that anyone he has met with about home rule can speak for themselves.”

Rawlings called on the community to form groups to create a better DISD under home rule, even offering to provide meetings space at city facilities. Rawlings said he was aware of some groups starting already, but he didn’t reveal that he met over the weekend with the three city leaders behind that effort.

Rene Martinez, right, and Pettis Norman, center, were part of the group Committee for Racial Healing and Understanding in 1998

Martinez, Dunning and Norman were part of Dallas Together, which started in 1988 to find ways to resolve Dallas’ racial problems. They have also worked together in other similar initiatives, including the Committee for Racial Healing and Understanding, which worked to ease political and racial tensions in DISD in 1998.

Norman said Tuesday he decided to get involved because the public has been left out of the home rule conversation, which has been led by Rawlings and the group Support Our Public Schools.

“I decided it was time to make a suggestion that we have a broader conversation,” Norman said. “We want a balanced discussion for this city, and we want to include as many people as we can.”

Martinez, who has criticized the home-rule effort, said in a statement that was he ready to support Rawlings. “I will serve the mayor in whatever capacity he asks me to help,” he said.

Dunning didn’t return a request for comment.

According to a person who has been briefed on the effort, the three leaders are planning to name a dozen black, Hispanic and white leaders to groups. They will study DISD, identify its successes and failures and suggest changes to improve the district.

Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles insisted Wednesday that the school district can improve without transforming into a home-rule school district, as Mayor Mike Rawlings has advocated.

While Miles didn’t take an official position on the home-rule movement, he roundly dismissed some of the top issues that the group has raised about why it is needed. Miles said the Texas Education Agency, state laws and the DISD school board haven’t gotten in the way of trying to overhaul the district.

“There’s a lot that we can do right now, and we are doing it,” Miles said at a meeting Wednesday with the Dallas Morning News editorial board. “There are enough obstacles that we have that we need to deal with. TEA is not the biggest limiting factor.”

The 1995 Texas law allows school districts to transform into home-rule districts, which are exempt from some state mandates and can create a new system of governing. The group leading the effort, Support Our Public Schools, has accused state legislators of forcing districts into a “one-size-fits-all approach.”

Miles said that trustee Mike Morath, who helped create Support Our Public Schools, told him about the home-rule effort before the group went public. But Miles said that the group hasn’t asked for his input or involved him.

“Hopefully, whatever they do is an assist to this and not, ‘Let’s blow it up,’” Miles said.

I spoke to an influential pastor in South Dallas on Thursday who posed an interesting question.

Right now, his congregation opposes the home-rule idea. So do many other black leaders in southern Dallas who have a lot of sway. Hispanic leaders, who are meeting tonight with Mayor Mike Rawlings and other Support Our Public Schools representatives, aren’t on board either.

But does that matter? Southern Dallas people don’t go to the polls like they do in North Dallas.

“It will probably pass if we don’t get people to the polls,” the pastor said. “People will actually have to go the polls, whether we want [home rule] or not. If we look historically, we may not have enough people in southern Dallas. The Afriacn American or Hispanic community may not turn out to vote.”

If the home-rule charter goes to voters in November, at least 25 percent of the registered voters in Dallas ISD must vote. And they must approve it. it’s likely there will be a 25 percent voter turnout, given that the gubernatorial election is also on the ballot.

I’ll have more on this issue later. But to get a sense of the north-south gap in voter turnout, look at the Dallas mayoral race in 2011 in the map above and consider this: Of the 69,997 votes cast, 18,300 came from southern Dallas.

Rawlings wants the school board to decide whether Superintendent Mike Miles stays or goes. The mayor has been a strong supporter of Miles' efforts to reform DISD, but Bush said that today he sounded fed up with the conflicts in the district.

Rawlings doesn't believe the conflict has to do with Miles' reform initiatives but rather personal differences.

One response came from a reader who wanted to get involved and shared this link about what Seattle is doing to promote tutoring. I haven’t had a chance to look deeply into this, but I do call it to your attention, especially the part about how the coalition behind this effort sponsors two training seminars a year.

If Dallas is going to have a big tutoring effort, participants are going to need some skills. A lot of tutoring is about showing a child you care. But tutors also need some knowledge about how to work with a child in a subject.

Your thoughts? Does Dallas need a tutoring campaign? If so, how should the city get people involved? I notice this Seattle coalition has a wide range of partners, so that’s one way to go.